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Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. Happy Wednesday! Our newsletter gets you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. Alexis Simendinger is doing solo duty this week while Al Weaver enjoys some R&R. Find us @asimendinger and @alweaver22 on Twitter and CLICK HERE to subscribe!

Enactment of gun restrictions and adoption of major new tax cuts are each seen as highly unlikely before next year’s elections, especially without intense commitments from Trump to cut politically dicey deals with Congress.

Bucking his conservative base on expanded gun background checks poses political risks, and the president sounded on Tuesday like a candidate who was disinterested in adding risk to his reelection terrain. On cutting taxes, Trump is in a bind. He’s told supporters the U.S. economy is in great shape, yet he’s nervous enough about a downturn to express enthusiasm for slashing payroll or capital gains taxes, both non-starters in a House led by Democrats.

The odds of that seemed to fade as the president, pressured by the National Rifle Association, mused aloud about a legislative “slippery slope” that could undercut the GOP’s solidarity behind gun rights. Trump’s comments retreated from remarks he made immediately after shootings earlier this month in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, when he said he could support “intelligent” gun background checks and advocated addressing mental illness.

“A lot of the people that put me where I am are strong believers in the Second Amendment and I am also,” the president said in the Oval Office on Tuesday, noting he’s been reminded of concerns from his base. “They call it the slippery slope, and all of a sudden everything gets taken away. We’re not going to let that happen,” he said (The Hill).

The Atlantic: Trump on Tuesday phoned the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre to say universal background checks are off the table, adding he wants to focus on “increasing funding” for mental-health care and directing attorneys general across the country to start prosecuting “gun crime” through federal firearms charges.

The New York Times: After lobbying by gun rights advocates, Trump sounds a familiar retreat.

The Washington Post: Parkland, Fla., students unveil a sweeping gun-control proposal and ambition for a youth voting surge in 2020.

Much more appealing to the president’s GOP supporters, especially if the economy contracts, might be talk of lowering tax burdens. A day after the president’s aides tried to tamp down reports that cutting payroll tax cuts was under serious discussion at the White House, Trump said it was indeed an idea under serious discussion, at least this week. He also mentioned his long-running enthusiasm for lowering taxes on capital gains (The Hill). Trump said he might not need Congress to index capital gains to inflation (Reuters).

The president’s interest in building tax-code fortresses against potential political jeopardy could influence his fall agenda with Congress. One idea Trump resists: retreating from U.S. tariff punishments against China, which most economists agree contribute to slower U.S. economic growth.

Those economic fears could give China greater leverage in negotiations. Beijing has warned that if the U.S. doesn’t lift the tariffs, China will continue to retaliate through the election, and it has already imposed retaliatory tariffs and stopped buying U.S. agriculture products (NBC News).

The Washington Post: Fact-checking Trump’s remarks on the economy (spoiler alert: the attorney general in 1993 wrote that a president cannot index capital gains without Congress).

LEADING THE DAY

POLITICS & CAMPAIGNS: Democratic presidential candidates have one week remaining to meet the Democratic National Committee’s rules to qualify for the debate stage Sept. 12 and Sept. 13 in Houston, moderated by ABC News and Univision.

What’s tough about the third round of primary debates? Candidates need to show contributions from at least 130,000 individuals, coming from at least 400 unique donors in 20 or more states. They also need to reach 2 percent in at least four DNC-approved polls before the Aug. 28 deadline.

The debate chase is one factor behind the summer obsession with early polling. Jonathan Easley and Max Greenwood report that new surveys suggest the strength of Sanders’s campaign is being underestimated. Sanders is clearly in the race nationally and in early voting states with Biden and Warren. The newest surveys also suggest his breadth of support is more diverse than Warren’s base; Sanders does better with blacks and Hispanics and with voters without a college degree.

And speaking of polling, Biden is enjoying a rebound in CNN’s latest survey, showing a double-digit lead over the rest of the Democratic field. The former vice president is at 29 percent, with Sanders at 15 percent and Warren at 14 percent. Why is his lead noteworthy? Because Biden has climbed, while Sanders and Warren have remained in place compared with their respective standings early in the summer (CNN).

WHITE HOUSE & ADMINISTRATION: The president did a lot of talking on Tuesday. Here’s a recap:

Trump on Tuesday canceled an official state visit to Denmark in early September after its prime minister rebuffed his interest in buying Greenland. "Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time," Trump tweeted. "The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct. I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!" (The Hill). Danes expressed shock and disbelief following the U.S. president’s abrupt decision (Reuters). Trump on Monday tweeted a mock composite photo of a high-rise Trump tower overlooking the sea along Greenland’s coast. “I promise not to do this to Greenland!” he wrote. The Washington Post explains how Trump became tantalized by a U.S. purchase of Greenland, a self-governing territory within Denmark, as a large real estate deal.

Trump repeated he’d like to see Russia included again in the Group of Seven (G-7) industrialized nations, returning to the Group of Eight format from which Russia was disinvited in 2014. Leaders of G-7 nations meet in southern France next week (The Hill).

Trump said he may nominate John Sullivan, deputy secretary of State, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Russia, succeeding Jon Huntsman, who announced on Aug. 7 that he would resign as the top U.S. diplomat in Russia after two years in the Trump administration. Huntsman is expected to leave the post in October, and there’s credible speculation that he wants to run for governor in Utah (The Hill). Trump was responding to a report in The New York Times that Sullivan will be his choice to head to Moscow, if confirmed.

Vice President Pence said the U.S. Space Command will be up and running Aug. 29. Responsible within the Pentagon for planning and executing space operations, it will have 87 units by next week with capabilities that include missile warning, satellite operations, space control and space support (The Hill).

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The House is in pro forma sessions until returning to Washington on Sept. 4 to begin consideration of legislation to respond to mass shootings.

The Senate continues to meet pro forma but is not scheduled to return for votes until Sept. 9.

The president travels to Louisville, Ky., to speak at the American Veterans national convention this afternoon, where he’ll also hold a political roundtable and fundraising committee reception.

The vice president travels to Roswell, N.M., to speak about the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement at Elite Well Services in Artesia, N.M., after which he’ll visit the U.S. Border Patrol Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center at 2:45 p.m. Pence will fly to Salt Lake City and remain overnight.

The Federal Reserve at 2 p.m. will release its minutes from the July Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Economic indicator: The National Association of Realtors reports at 10 a.m. on existing home sales in July. Analysts have been closely monitoring a softening housing market this summer.

ELSEWHERE

➔ Banks: U.S. banking regulators on Tuesday bowed to financial institutions by easing trading regulations applied to Wall Street banks, known as the “Volcker Rule,” handing them one of their biggest wins under the Trump administration. It took less than a decade of methodical lobbying by financial institutions to secure lighter restrictions than those enacted with the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law enacted in response to the 2008 financial meltdown. The revamped rule drew criticism from consumer activists and Democratic lawmakers who warned of potential risks to taxpayers (Reuters). The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation amended the “Volcker Rule,” which originally was devised to ban lenders that accept U.S. taxpayer-insured deposits from investing those deposits for their own gain. The original restriction (now scrapped) forced banks to prove that their short-term trades — those held for less than 60 days — were allowable under the law. Banks complained that the provision was burdensome and restricted legitimate trading (The New York Times).

➔ Italy: Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced his resignation on Tuesday and accused League party chief Matteo Salvini, his own interior minister, of sinking the government’s ruling coalition and endangering the Italian economy for personal and political gain (Reuters). The Economist called it a “bombshell,” albeit one that was anticipated, adding that no one knows what comes next. … Meanwhile, Spain ordered a naval vessel on Tuesday to the Italian island of Lampedusa to bring migrants stranded there on a rescue boat to Mallorca after some jumped overboard, amid a prolonged stand-off with Italy’s government. Salvini and the Italian government forged a tougher line on African migration to Europe (Reuters).

➔ Pro basketball: Who’s in charge of enforcing the NBA salary cap? The New York Times’s Sopan Deb answers that question: “With great minutiae comes great responsibility.”

Bei Bei, a giant panda born at the National Zoo in 2015, on Thursday will celebrate his fourth birthday but is preparing to leave the United States to live in China as part of a panda-breeding agreement between the two countries. Always a crowd favorite in Washington, Bei Bei is the offspring of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian and was conceived by artificial insemination (WTOP).

Meanwhile, the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk announced this week that Masu, a 3-year-old red panda that came from Denver two years ago, delivered triplets in June, two males and a female, each now weighing a pound. The zoo is auctioning off naming rights for the photogenic cubs until Aug. 30 as a way to support conservation of the endangered red panda species. Information HERE (The Virginian-Pilot).